Voters speak, but pols not listening

Tribune Editorial

Updated: 02/03/2010 05:21:23 PM MST

From politics and religion to our favorite college football team, Utah is a state divided. But at least one issue unites us: our revulsion for radioactive waste.

The Tribune commissioned a poll of 625 registered voters last month and asked them about two hot issues -- the disposal of depleted uranium, and the disposal of foreign radioactive waste, at EnergySolutions' low-level radioactive waste facility in Tooele County. And the survey says Utahns want DU and imported waste like they want a hole in the head.

On the topic of imported waste, 68 percent of respondents support a bill sponsored by U.S. Reps. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, to ban radioactive imports. Only 25 percent side with the rest of Utah's federal delegation -- Republican Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch and Rep. Rob Bishop -- by not supporting the proposed law, which has passed the House but is being blocked by Bennett in the Senate.
If there's one thing more unpopular than foreign waste in Utah, it's DU, a form of low-level Class A waste which becomes more radioactive as time goes by. An overwhelming 76 percent of respondents oppose Utah's serving as a repository for the materials, which will eventually exceed the state's safety standards. But that hasn't stopped the feds from authorizing shipments of government DU to Utah, despite ongoing state and federal studies into DU disposal issues.

Unlike other issues, which split the state along religious or ideological lines, DU and imported waste are opposed by Mormons and non-Mormons, males and females, and Republicans and Democrats alike. And no wonder. Unless your faith in the hazardous waste industry and government regulators is unflagging, you'll have to agree that these materials are potentially harmful to our health, and the health of future generations of Utahns. Plus, serving as the nation's, and potentially the world's, Class A low-level waste garbage dump is bad for our image. And, in a state where tourism drives the economy and maintaining a high quality of life is essential to economic development, image is everything.

It's time for Bennett, Hatch and Bishop, who have each accepted tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from EnergySolutions, to do the bidding of their constituents instead of their contributors. It's time to lobby the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reclassify depleted uranium as a more-dangerous waste, and suspend shipments of DU to Utah until disposal issues have been resolved. And it's time to pass the Radioactive Import Deterrence Act, and preserve our limited disposal space for domestic waste.